Gel polymer electrolyte based on poly(acrylonitrile-co-styrene) and a novel organic iodide salt for quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cell (original) (raw)
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This research article reports on a systematic approach to the development of polymer gel electrolytes (PGEs) for the applications of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). The authors prepared PGE blend using poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) polymers along with three different ionic salts. They demonstrated a good ionic conductivity of 1.52 Â 10 À2 S cm À1 , which improved PV performance. The conduction mechanism of the (PAN/PEG) PGE is based on the interaction of three cations of distinct sizes, Hex 4 N + , K + , and Li + ions, with the polymer host. The rapid diffusion of I À /I 3 À iodide ions through the pores formed by PEG in the PGE is the primary cause of improved ionic conductivity. Various compositions of (PAN/PEG) have been optimized to obtain a sufficient porous structure and improved photon conversion efficiency (PCE) of the cell, achieving 8.6% in this research. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), impedance spectroscopy, incident photon conversion efficiency (IPCE) and finally current density voltage (J-V) characterization techniques are used to analyze and compare the results with those of liquid electrolyte-based cells.
Dye-sensitized solar cell with poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylonitrile)-based gel polymer electrolyte
Materials Chemistry and Physics, 2012
A non-conducting, nontoxic poly(acrylic acid-co-acrylonitrile) (PAA) was prepared and used as a supporting matrix for the electrolyte of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs). DSSCs of active area 0.80 cm × 1.10 cm fabricated with PAA, 0.5 M LiI, 0.05 M I 2 , 0.5 M 3-tert-butylpyridine, and 0.1 M 1methyl-3-propylimidazolium iodide in 3-methoxypropionitrile solvent showed an average solar energy conversion efficiency of 1.61% under simulated sunlight illumination of 100 mW cm −2 , AM 1.5. The effects of the gel polymer matrix on the electrochemical properties of DSSCs were studied using the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. Relative to the non-gel reference cells, the results showed a decrease in charge recombination, ionic diffusion, and double layer capacitance and an increase in electron lifetime. These results could play an important role in determining the future direction for the development of high-performance gel polymer electrolytes.
Polymer electrolyte based on polyethylene glycol for quasi-solid state dye sensitized solar cells
Renewable Energy, 2012
A gel polymer electrolyte containing I À /I 3 À redox couple was prepared using polyethylene glycol (PEG) as polymer matrix and propylene carbonate (PC) as organic solvent by solegel method. A dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) employing the gel polymer electrolyte gives an open-circuit voltage of 0.7 V and a shortcircuit current of 8.1 mA cm À2 at an incident light intensity of 100 mW cm À2. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy was utilized to examine the chemical properties of produced gel electrolytes. Unlike the conventional covalent bond that bridges the different polymer segments, in this study, it was observed that hydrogen bonds bridged polyethylene glycol and propylene carbonate. Influences of different synthetic parameters such as reaction time and temperature were also investigated. Optimal DSSC performance was observed at electrolyte reaction temperature and time of 100 C and 24 h, respectively, with a maximum photoelectric energy conversion efficiency of 2.2%.
Highly efficient quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cell with ion conducting polymer electrolyte
Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A-chemistry, 2004
Quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cells were fabricated using an oligomer having three polymerizable reactive groups. Only 7% polymer concentration in the polymer electrolyte is found enough to form a stable quasi-solid structure and a three-dimensional polymer network structure is proposed. Conductivity measurement of the polymer electrolyte in different organic solvents shows that the ionic conductivity increases with decreasing the viscosity of the solvent and a high ionic conductivity of 9 mS/cm is observed for the polymer electrolyte composition of 0.2 M DMPII, 0.5 M LiI, 0.05 M I 2 in the mixed solvent of ethylene carbonate and ␥-butyrolactone (30:70 v/v). A short circuit photocurrent density of 14.8 mA/cm 2 , an open circuit voltage of 0.78 V, a fill factor of 0.70 and an overall conversion efficiency of 8.1% under AM1.5 irradiation (100 mW/cm 2 ) was observed when fabricated a quasi-solid state dye-sensitized solar cells using these high conducting polymer electrolyte. The quasi-solid cells with the polymer electrolyte show higher open circuit voltage than that of the liquid cells that may be due to the suppression of the back electron transfer between the conduction band of the TiO 2 electrode and the triiodide ion in the electrolyte.
Quasi-solid electrolyte based on polyacrylonitrile for dye-sensitized solar cells
Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology A: Chemistry, 2011
A quasi-solid gel-polymer electrolyte for dye-sensitized nanostructured TiO 2 sensitized by N719 ruthenium dye has been developed. The electrolyte is comprised of polyacrylonitrile along with plasticizers, ethylene carbonate and propylene carbonate in the 15:35:50 ratio and the redox couple consists of tetrabutyl ammonium iodide and iodine along with tertiary butyl pyridine. The concentration of iodide: iodine was optimized and optimal activity was found when the molar ratio is 1.50: 0.05. This gel electrolyte has a high electrical conductivity of 4.33 mS cm-1 and overall conversion efficiencies of over 7 % were obtained for solar to electrical energy conversion which is higher than the values reported for other similar gel-polymer electrolytes. The reduction in efficiency compared to the liquid solar cell employing a liquid electrolyte can be attributed to incomplete wetting of pores and due to mass transfer limitations of redox species through a more viscous medium.
A Review on Gel Polymer Electrolytes for Dye-Sensitized Solar Cells
Micromachines
Significant growth has been observed in the research domain of dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) due to the simplicity in its manufacturing, low cost, and high-energy conversion efficiency. The electrolytes in DSSCs play an important role in determining the photovoltaic performance of the DSSCs, e.g., volatile liquid electrolytes suffer from poor thermal stability. Although low volatility liquid electrolytes and solid polymer electrolytes circumvent the stability issues, gel polymer electrolytes with high ionic conductivity and enduring stability are stimulating substitutes for liquid electrolytes in DSSC. In this review paper, the advantages of gel polymer electrolytes (GPEs) are discussed along with other types of electrolytes, e.g., solid polymer electrolytes and p-type semiconductor-based electrolytes. The benefits of incorporating ionic liquids into GPEs are highlighted in conjunction with the factors that affect the ionic conductivity of GPEs. The strategies on the improvemen...
Chemical Physics Letters, 2020
This work deals the preparation of a new polymer gel electrolyte using an efficient poly (acrylonitrile)-co-poly (butyl acrylate) (PAN-co-PBA) for solid-state DSSCs. Prepared PAN-co-PBA exhibited the superabsorbent behavior as seen the carboxylate group in copolymer. An excellent gelation with iodide couple and high ionic conductivity of 3.86 mS/cm were recorded for PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte. Fabricated DSSC with 7% PAN-co-PBA attained the highest overall conversion efficiency of ~5.23% along with high JSC = 13.16 mA/cm2, VOC = 0.646 V and FF = 0.62. Improved DSSC performance might be related to excellent gelation and high ionic conductivity of PAN-co-PBA gel electrolyte, resulting in improving interfacial contact and pore filling.
Dye sensitized solar cell with carbon doped (PAN/PEG) polymer quasi-solid gel electrolyte
Quasi-solid gel polymer electrolytes can be used favorably in the titanium dioxide (TiO2)-based photoelectrochemical dye-sensitized solar cells (DSCs). In the present investigation we study the photoelectrochemical characteristics of poly(acrylonitrile) (PAN) blended with poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) quasi-solid gel polymer electrolytes (GPE) prepared by hotpressing method. A possible gel electrolyte may be made with (PAN/PEG) which comprises activated carbon, ethylene carbonate, propylene carbonate, lithium iodide, lodine, 4-tertinary butyl pyridine, 1-N-butyl-3-hexyl imidizolium iodide along with acetonitrile and tetrahydrofuran binary solvent. The ratio of PAN to PEG as well as carbon weight % are optimized based on conductivity and solar cell efficiency. Polymer gel electrolytes are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and field emision electron microscopy (FE-SEM). The conductivity of the gel electrolytes is determined by impedance studies. On the basis of the polymer gel el...
In order to overwhelm the electrolyte leakage problem and improve the stability in extreme climate conditions, we have studied the fabrication and characteristics of dye sensitized solar cell (DSSC) using polymer gel electrolyte (PGE), which is developed from siloxane based polymer gel blended with imidazolium ionic liquid. In many cases, the use of PGE often reduces its photovoltaic performance due to the decrease in its ionic mobility. However, such influence was not observed in our present work. In this work, the fabricated DSSC do not exhibit significant degradation in its working performance. The best overall energy conversion efficiency is about 5.25%, as indicated by short circuit photocurrent (J sc ) larger than 12 mA/cm 2 , which is comparable to performance of reference cell made by using ionic liquid only. We found from the impedance spectroscopy measurements that the electrolyte diffusion coefficient in the DSSC using this PGE is comparable to that in DSSC using ionic liquid electrolyte.